Stoke City chairman Peter Coates has told a MPs committee he doesn't expect to make money from owning the club.
Coates admitted that he didn't make any money from owning the club and didn't think it was possible to make money out of a club "at Stoke's level".
But he said the previous owners had bought Stoke in the false belief it would make them cash.
He told the MPs: "They wanted to go because they had lost their money and that happens a lot in football. They were desperate to go.
"They thought they could make it work and do well. They thought they had a bit of money to spend, to enjoy it, to make money, and of course they discovered how difficult it was," he added.
